


After Hours

by Kagedtiger



Series: Time 'Verse [7]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-16
Updated: 2015-04-16
Packaged: 2018-03-23 07:42:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,445
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3760141
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kagedtiger/pseuds/Kagedtiger
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ficlet. Uhura and McCoy discuss the new change in their Captain and First Officer's relationship. Takes place just after "Out of Time" in the Time 'Verse series.</p>
            </blockquote>





	After Hours

"So?" asked Uhura, plunking herself down into the chair in front of McCoy's desk. At his grumpy glower, her smile only grew.

"So," responded McCoy gruffly. He grabbed up the glass of gin on the table and took a swig, swishing it around his teeth before swallowing.

"So?" Uhura repeated. Her eyes sparkled. "I won, didn't I?"

McCoy sighed and put down the glass. "I owe you fifty credits."

"Aha!" Uhura clapped her hands together with glee. "I knew it! I knew it the second I saw Jim limping when he came back. So, are they officially married, or just bonded? Did they go through the full ceremony?"

"Search me," McCoy grumbled. "I don't know anything about this crazy Vulcan mind-bond crap. I don't know how the hell you know anything about it. I looked through the medical files for ages, couldn't find a damn thing to explain it."

"That's 'cause you're looking in the wrong places, Honey," said Uhura with a wink. Without being asked, she grabbed the bottle of gin and poured herself a shot. "It's all in the language. Every concept needs a word. No one reads the old Vulcan romances any more. It's a shame."

"That's because Vulcan romances're dryer than the deserts they're set in. I don't know how you stand 'em."

"Nonsense!" Uhura took a sip of her shot. "Vulcan romances have some of the most beautiful use of language in any written text. They're amazing works of craftsmanship."

"Sure, if you don't mind reading a description of a rock for thirty pages," McCoy groused.

"The description of the _suk'kov_ is 43 pages of the most breathtakingly-written, scientifically precise-"

"Do you mind here, Sister?" McCoy interrupted. "I'm trying to get drunk."

Uhura smiled indulgently at him as he downed his gin shot in one gulp, and helpfully poured him another. "Aw, come on now. They're not that bad. I think it's kind of adorable."

McCoy frowned at her. "If anyone was gonna be mad about this, I'd think it would be you. Jim's the one who stole your boyfriend, after all."

Uhura waved her hand dismissively. "That was a long time ago. And I knew then that something was going on there, I just wasn't sure how serious. I mean, it was obvious to everyone that something had happened. You must have seen the productivity increase. The way they just suddenly stopped bickering."

"They didn't stop bickering." McCoy looked morosely into his glass, which was mysteriously empty once more. "It just turned into foreplay." The glass was mysteriously full again, and so he emptied it.

Uhura smiled. "That was kind of cute too."

"Well, maybe it'll settle down now that they're married. Lord knows I hope Jim's marriage goes better than mine."

"Oh no, the public foreplay will only get worse," Uhura corrected. "You watch."

McCoy gave her a hurt look, as though wondering why she would deliberately cause him pain.

Uhura nodded. "A full bond means that they've got near-speech telepathy now. They'll be finishing each others' sentences, talking mind-to-mind - they could practically have psychic sex on the bridge and no one would notice except that Kirk doesn't know how to keep up a poker face."

McCoy winced. "Why'd you have to do that? Really? You thought that mental image would be good for me?"

Uhura grinned impishly and stood with her glass, walking casually around the room and surveying McCoy's belongings. The doctor stayed seated, the better to continue his binge drinking.

"When he first left..." Uhura began, her back to the doctor. McCoy looked up at her, his vision slightly hazy. He waited for her to continue.

"When he first left, I was... sad. I knew something had changed between him and the captain, and I thought, why not me, you know? I mean, I should've been the one he bonded with. I wondered what the captain had that I didn't. But it is different with them. They're a... team, in the way that Spock and I never were. He and I were too similar, I guess, and he needs that emotional extreme to balance him. They're good for each other. They fit well together. They need each other, I think."

"Don't let Jim hear you say he needs anybody," McCoy muttered.

Uhura turned and smiled at him. "Oh? You don't think he'd admit it?"

"Jim has never admitted he needed anybody in his whole life. Not seriously."

"He would about Spock. I guarantee you."

McCoy paused, another glass half-raised to his lips, and eyed her speculatively. Then he gulped down his drink. "Well, I ain't bettin' with you again. I've learned my lesson."

He started to pour himself another drink, but Uhura's gentle hand on the bottle stopped him. He looked up at her, wondering how she'd gotten to his side so fast.

"I'm sorry if it feels like you're losing a friend. You're not, you know."

"I know," McCoy mumbled, but he couldn't bring himself to meet her gaze. 

She took the seat across from him once more, her expression serious. "They'll be good for each other, you'll see."

"I just don't want Jim to get hurt. Relationships like these - whirlwind romances, you know - I seen too many of 'em end badly. That shouldn't happen to him. He's had too much other shit to deal with as it is. He deserves somethin' good."

"They will be good," Uhura promised. "Trust me, just you watch and see. They're gonna blow every other couple out of the water. This one'll stick."

"Even though it's Jim?" McCoy asked skeptically. 

Uhura smiled. "Even though it's Jim. I don't know if you know this, but Vulcans are actually very jealous and protective of their mates. Normally it doesn't come up, because most Vulcans aren't exactly inclined to stray. But Vulcan males in particular, especially once they're bonded, don't like to see others making overtures towards their mates."

McCoy snickered. "Oh, I can just imagine the shit that's gonna go down. The goblin's gonna have his hands full with Jim's wandering eyes." He shook his head. "I must be getting drunk enough - it's actually starting to seem kinda funny now."

Uhura patted him companionably on the head, which McCoy suddenly realized had sunk down just about to the level of the desk.

"I think you should get some rest," she said.

"The _bruises_ he had!" McCoy exploded, as Uhura helped him to his feet. "You shoulda seen 'em! All. Over. Crazy. It was crazy, I tell ya."

"Mmmhm," said Uhura patiently, directing him towards the small cot in his office on which he often slept when he had patients that required constant care and supervision.

"I don' wanna think about what happened there, lemme tell ya," McCoy continued, his words starting to slur together. "Iss like, iss like, you know what iss like? Iss like the time Jim got beat up by that monster, only- only worse! Way worse! An' I could see _hand prints_ , do you know what tha's like? He's like- he's like my son, an' I could see _hand prints_ on his _hips_ , an' they were _doin'_ stuff...!"

Uhura lay him down and tucked him in with great care, patting his shoulder. "It'll be alright, Leonard. You just sleep now, okay, and don't think about it."

McCoy nodded, and continued nodding until he forgot what he was nodding about and slowly nodded himself to sleep. Uhura smiled indulgently as she closed what was left of the bottle of gin and turned off the lights in McCoy's office. The door slid shut with a slight hiss behind her as she left the poor doctor to sleep it off.

The fifty credits, she reflected, had been a given. McCoy had been deluding himself, taking that bet. But she'd known better.

Uhura had read the ancient Vulcan romances. She knew the words. She recognized _pon farr_ and _plak tow_. She knew what the word _t'hy'la_ meant and what, at one point in her life, she had wanted it to mean.

And because she knew what it meant, she wasn't afraid for them. McCoy had been smarter not to take this bet. She'd seen what Spock and Kirk were like with only the barest of bonds. Now that the bond had been consummated, nothing short of death would tear them apart. Perhaps not even that.

Uhura smiled to herself as she made her way back to her chambers. Everything would be fine. Kirk was, as she'd said, good for Spock. And despite his many faults, she knew that he'd never let Spock down.

Of course, if he did, Uhura would break his spine.

But that was just a matter of course.


End file.
